


i'll dry your tears; if you let me

by MayWilder



Series: i'll dry your tears [2]
Category: Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Cat loves Jon Snow Because He's Not a Stark, Catelyn Stark is a Good Mother, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Jon Snow is NOT a Stark, M/M, Mostly Resolved, Ned Stark Loves His Children, Stark Family Fic, Starks Unite, mentions of drug use, pov fic, resolved angst, throbb - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-30
Updated: 2018-10-30
Packaged: 2019-08-09 19:31:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,585
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16455938
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MayWilder/pseuds/MayWilder
Summary: “Mum, Dad, wake up.”Catelyn, her body forever changed after having children, flutters her eyes open at the sound of her daughter’s voice and pushes into a sitting position. Sansa is standing at the foot of their bed, face set into a calm expression. She’s dressed in her usual Saturday clothes, but her sleeves are pushed up and she wears an apron. Arya is leaning against the mattress, arms crossed and looking eerily expressionless while still in pajamas.“What’s happened?” Catelyn asks as Ned stirs beside her.“Everything is fine,” Sansa says calmly. “But Theon came home last night.”





	i'll dry your tears; if you let me

**Author's Note:**

> Mentions of Past Rape/Non-con; no beta  
> Catelyn POV; 
> 
> I wrote this with the other piece and felt weird not posting.

 “Mum, Dad, wake up.”

Catelyn, her body forever changed after having children, flutters her eyes open at the sound of her daughter’s voice and pushes into a sitting position. Sansa is standing at the foot of their bed, face set into a calm expression. She’s dressed in her usual Saturday clothes, but her sleeves are pushed up and she wears an apron. Arya is leaning against the mattress, arms crossed and looking eerily expressionless while still in pajamas.

“What’s happened?” Catelyn asks as Ned stirs beside her.

“Everything is fine,” Sansa says calmly. “But Theon came home last night.”

Catelyn’s heart rate picks up and she rushes to leave the bed because the week of Christmas really does bring along miracles. Sansa holds out her hands. “I’ve made breakfast for everyone, and we can talk about it then. Take your time getting up.”

At their parents surprised faces, Arya speaks up. “It was an interesting night, Theon is just now waking up, and we think it’s better that this goes like any other family meeting.”

“I don’t like being ordered around in my own home, sweetlings.”

“Then, _please_ don’t get up,” Sansa amends. She glances at Arya. “Well, please don’t come downstairs until you are dressed and looking like your normal selves. Please.”

Ned, never able to refuse his daughters, says that they will go about the morning like normal. “But first, you will give us more information.”

Sansa purses her lips, but nods. “About one o’clock last night, we were all watching the telly in the family room. Robb got a text from Jon, saying he would be at the house in ten minutes and that he had Theon with him. We waited in the front room, all of us, and I had the first aid kit ready just in case. It wasn’t too bad, but Theon’s bad wrist is sprained again, and he has a black eye. Robb was angry at first, obviously, and he wanted to know why Theon went back to Ramsey after…well, after last time.”

Last time.

Catelyn remembers last time.

 

 

_It was nice to have all of her children in the same house, however brief. Catelyn felt like it could help them all, enjoying summer vacation before Sansa headed back to Highgarden for University, Arya’s team started up training, and the younger boys went back to school. Jon and Robb had just taken some time off of work to come visit them all. Her family was whole again._

_Well, almost whole._

_The thought was pushed away by the ringing of Ned’s personal phone, which was rare to hear after becoming so used to the shrill tone of his work phone. Everyone silenced as he took the call, a frown deepening on his face. “I see. What room? Excellent. We’ll be there in twenty minutes at the most.”_

_He hung up the phone._

_“Ned?” Cat asked. “What is it?”_

_“Theon.”_

_A thickness spread across the table. Catelyn saw Robb’s hands tense around his fork._

_“Where is he?” Sansa asked immediately. Catelyn knew she was thinking about how Ramsey was known for beating his boyfriends and girlfriends. As someone who was put in the hospital by a lover’s fists, Sansa always feared the worst. “Daddy?”_

_“He is in the hospital, but he will be alright. We are his emergency contact still, so that’s why we were called. Your mother and I will go now.”_

_“Of course,” Catelyn said. She threw her napkin down and stood._

_“I’m coming with,” Robb added._

_“And me, obviously.” Sansa stood._

_Catelyn looked at her children, and then looked at Ned. Starks had never been good with negotiation, and so Ned conceded. “We’ll all go. Everybody best hurry, I will leave without you.”_

_They all knew he wouldn’t, but they hurried anyway._

_The hospital was bustling with shift changes when they arrived, but the money Catelyn put towards the hospital made it so that the large family was able to walk right up to the fourth floor where Theon is. Ned made everyone except Robb and Catelyn wait outside the door, and was met with grim, but obedient faces. Steeling herself, Cat lead the way._

_Theon was awake when they walked in, broken and bruised and hooked up to one too many machines. At the very least, he breathed on his own and Catelyn only shed a few tears._

_“You…” Theon gasped when he saw them. His eyes flickered between them all. “You came.”_

_“Of course, dear boy,” Catelyn said quietly. She stepped up to his side. “We will always come.”_

_“After the things I said…”_

_“It’s in the past,” Robb said immediately. Cat saw that her eldest son was choked, blue eyes watering. “We’ll get you home soon enough, eh?”_

_Theon nodded. “Yeah. Yeah, alright. If you’ll still have me.”_

_“Silly boy,” Cat replied. She finally sat on the bed, taking a bruised hand. It was too many different colors in all the wrong places. Why was this hand always hurt? “We’ll always have you.”_

 

 

“—and then, Robb just hugged him for a long while. We all stood in solidarity until Theon let Robb and Jon help him upstairs. Rickon brought Bran, and we all slept in Theon’s room. This morning, he was better, and he talked to Robb. Theon told him that Ramsey didn’t rape him this time, hasn’t in months. Theon had mostly stayed away from him, but Ramsey showed up last night, drunk and reminding Theon of all the reasons Theon thinks he isn’t good enough. He mentioned Robb not loving him. Theon tried to fight him, but Ramsey was so drunk he got a few punches in, twisted Theon’s wrist, and passed out after tripping over the carpet in Theon’s apartment. He called Jon, said he brought him home.”

Catelyn wants to weep. “Why did he call Jon?”

“Because,” Sansa gulps. “Jon and I have been in constant contact with Theon for months. We knew he had managed to avoid Ramsey for the most part. Last night, he didn’t want to lose all the progress he made in therapy, so he called Jon and Jon brought him home, where he should have been all along. Months ago, years ago.”

“It’s not Robb’s fault, Sansa,” Ned reminds his daughter gently. “Theon left of his own accord.”

“Because Robb couldn’t admit that he loved him,” Arya fires back. “Robb’s the one who fucked Theon and then went back to a woman without resolving it. And what he said to Theon—

“Is something he has hurt over.”

“And getting engaged to Jeyne?” Arya presses. She looks like she’s releasing things she’s been wanting to say for years. “Even though we all know Robb is bi, that he loves Theon and should have never pretended not to be just to fit in better.”

“By the time Robb proposed to Jeyne, Theon had been gone for a year,” Catelyn says sharply. “He thought he would never see Theon again.”

“Not like he tried that hard to find him—

“Enough.” Ned smacks his thigh. There is silence in the room. “Sansa, please go back downstairs. Arya, put some clothes on. Your mother and I will be down when we’re ready.”

Sansa and Arya wordlessly file out. The door is shut, and soon Cat is leaning into her husband and thanking any God to have ever existed that Robb has finally embraced himself and broken off the engagement with Jeyne. She didn’t think she could endure that again.

 

 

_Cat knew she should have learned her lesson at that point, but when she walked into Theon’s hospital room to see Robb laying in the bed with Theon, she stopped in her tracks and makes no noise._

_“I thought I would never see you again, Theon,” Robb spoke softly. “I tried to run after you, to find you, but your dad said you’d fucked off to be with Ramsey.”_

_“I know,” Theon replied. His voice was still scratchy. “I was pretty high that night, not thinking straight, and I said irrational things. No matter how I felt about you, it wasn’t your fault that I ran to Ramsey. I did that. I found comfort in someone who didn’t actually love me. Maybe that’s not my lot in life.”_

_“It’s not.”_

_“How can you know? I’ve never been with someone who loved me.”_

_“I know of at least one time.”_

_“Robb… don’t say that to make me feel better.”_

_“I’m not, Theon,” Robb replied. The sheets rustle as Robb moved and looked Theon in the eyes. Catelyn knew she needed to back up and leave, but she was glued. “I know I’ve tried to hide who I am and how I feel about you, but you knew. That night was the most perfect night of my life. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve wished I accepted who I was. I should have been brave like you.”_

_“I’m not brave,” Theon said and then he was crying again. “I’m weak, falling into the arms of the first man who looks at me and letting him hurt me because at least he looks at me. How pathetic can that be?”_

_“You aren’t pathetic,” Robb insisted. He kissed Theon the, surprising the other man. Theon relaxed soon enough, however, and accepted the embrace while his eyelids fluttered shut. Catelyn retreated then, seeing how this will end. Her heart hurt for all parties involved. Robb wouldn’t accept himself, Theon believed nobody else will accept him, and Jeyne did not deserve to be cast aside or stayed with for the wrong reasons._

_It was all truly a horrific mess, one week later. Theon came home from the hospital and was suddenly blindsided by Jeyne Westerling’s appearance at the Stark family home, sporting a Stark family heirloom of her left ring finger._

_The next morning, Theon and his things were gone._

_Catelyn cried for a week._

 

 

When they gather around the dining room table, Rickon is the first to dig into his pancakes like the wild child he is. He’s sitting next to Theon, who gives a small smile at the behavior and reaches slowly for a pancake with his injured hand— _always injured hand_ , Catelyn reminds herself. His other hand is below the table, gripped tightly in Sansa’s.

“This looks delicious, Sansa,” Ned compliments. “I’ve always loved when you make pancakes.”

Sansa smiles, but says nothing.

“Right,” Arya says. “Theon, where the fuck have you been?”

“Arya!” Catelyn exclaims.

“Mum!” Arya exclaims in return. She makes a face. “Are we going to dance around this like we have been since August or are we going to talk like reasonable people?

“I’ve been in Highgarden,” Theon replies before Cat can further berate her. “I’ve been painting again, putting up some connections. The Tyrells are very supportive of my art and want to help me get a show set up sometime in the New Year. After two months in rehab, I kept going to therapy, working through some things with my family and abandonment issues. I’ve especially been working on taking responsibility for my own actions and understanding why those actions arose in the first place. And…I’ve had some help from Sansa and Jon.”

Robb’s head snaps up at that. Catelyn supposes that Jon left out that part the other night.

“Sansa was already in Winterfell, but I knew Jon was still in town. When Ramsey stopped by, I felt like I was backtracking.”

“That happens,” Bran says seriously. “You can’t expect to be cured in a few months.”

“I know,” Theon assures them. “But I was still really freaked out. So, I called Jon, he came and got me, and he said we were coming home.”

There’s silence at the table. Robb isn’t eating like everyone else, but he’s staring at Theon. “Did you know?”

More silence. Theon is staring at Robb blankly.

“Theon,” Robb says slowly. His voice is low like it gets whenever he’s trying not to be angry. “Did you _know?_ ”

“About you coming out? Breaking off the engagement?” Theon chuckles, but it doesn’t carry any humor. “Of course I did. Between the fact that the most famous football player in Europe was gay and that Lord Eddard Stark’s son broke off an important engagement, the papers were covered with your face for over a month. Not to mention, Jon and Sansa casually mentioned it about three billion times.”

Jon and Sansa blush.

“Why didn’t you—

“Come running into your arms? My therapist told me my mental health was most important. I had to stop relying on other people. First my mum, then you lot, then Ramsey. It needed to come to an end.”

“I am proud of the progress you’ve made,” Catelyn says sincerely. She looks across the table to Theon. “And we will find a way for you to keep seeing this therapist. However, Theon Greyjoy…”

He looks as if he’s bracing himself for a hit. Old instincts, she supposes.

“If you even think about leaving here before New Year’s day, I will chase you across the earth and drag you back by your ear.”

She doesn’t think anyone has ever looked so happy to be threatened.

**)-(**

Over the next few days, Catelyn watches Theon interacting with her children again. Its good to see him smiling with Arya again, speaking with Rickon about music and Bran about his psychology. He spends most of his time with Jon and Sansa, Robb watching from the outside as the three laugh together. Its a bit of a surprise to see Theon and Sansa glued at the hip—despite how close the two are, they’ve never been giggling like school girls and planning their outfits for the New Year’s ball quite like they are at the moment.

“The white and gold dress, obviously,” Theon is holding up his camera and showing it to Sansa. “Look, this shape will make your tits look perfect.”

“I do like the neckline—just sly of slutty, but appropriate for a family function.”

“And the glittering gold, Sans.”

“You really think so?”

“Marge designed it for you, wants you to parade around and say that you’re wearing a Highgarden original,” Theon sighs, leaning back. “I watched her work on it for hours. What more could you ask for in a dress? It will have perfect fit, be comfortable, be made of the finest Italian silk, and showcase your best friend’s fashion line.”

“You’re right. I’ll call her tomorrow.”

“You’ll call her tonight.” Thoen demands. He looks over at Jon. “You have an appointment with—

“Don’t say Loras!”

“—Loras, who is simply fitting the tux for you,” Theon finishes. “Sansa and I already found Armani tuxes for you and Robb. Your insistence of class and style has been noted.”

“You will be going for the luxury and ostentatiousness of Highgarden, though, correct?” Catelyn finally chips in, flicking through her own fashion magazine. “It would not be a New Year’s ball without one of your frightening suits.”

“I’m thinking purple this year, yes?” Theon grinned.

“Purple’s a good color on you,” Robb comments off-handedly from his place in the large chair in the living room. “If it doesn’t have that God-awful shine to it like 2013’s suit.”

“It was gold, Robb, what did you want from me?”

“Class, love, class.”

Nobody makes verbal note of how Robb calls Theon “love” or how Theon blushes and smiles widely at his feet.

Catelyn, however, feels it spread from her heart and down her arms. Her family is whole, and they can _heal._

**Author's Note:**

> i'm maywildflowers on tumblr. hit me up for a trash can of my faves


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